All posts tagged deception

Have you ever been tempted to lie to a company — about how many times you wore clothes you now want to return, perhaps, or about how, exactly, that fender got dented? More than a few people have. And consumers who fib, a new study finds, are more satisfied than truth-tellers when a dispute with a firm works out to their advantage—and more unhappy when it doesn’t.

The study involved nearly 600 people, many of whom were asked, in laboratory scenarios, to lie to a “service provider,” in order to gain a prize (or to exchange one prize for a more-preferred prize). Sometimes they were only given the option to lie, but then they leapt at the chance: In one experiment, it was entirely up to students whether they prevaricated about their computer habits, to someone on the phone, in order to receive a USB flash-drive key ring. But fully three fourths of those given the chance chose to do so.

In the laboratory scenarios, the liars consistently displayed more polarized reactions to the final answer, whether it was yes or no, than people who pleaded their case without embellishment, and this finding was reinforced by interviews about real-world lies….

Biographies

Gary Rosen is the editor of Review and the former managing editor of Commentary magazine. His articles and reviews have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. He is the author of "American Compact: James Madison and the Problem of Founding" and the editor of "The Right War? The Conservative Debate on Iraq."